Since I began making items for the 9X in 2010, I've struggled with screws. The screws that the 9X uses are... unusual. And it took me a long time and a lot of research to finally identify them as "M2.2 thread rolling screws". They aren't so easy to buy though! I found, by happy accident, that #2-56 machine screws happened to work quite well so I used those for years. Over the batches, my supplier screwed up (pun intended) several times. One time they mistook #2 as M2 (not the same thing) and all the screws were too small. They said they could only get metric, so I told them to go find the correct M2.2 size and they said "no problem", and promptly shipped M2.5, which were too big. I went back to #2-56 for the next couple years and all was happy in screw land.

Then FlySky, the makers of the 9X, decided to change things up a bit. I started to get more and more reports of "your screws are too small" before I realized what they had done. They decided to unify the screws in their product, making most of them the same size. They stopped using the M2.2 screws and replaced them with the same M2.5 screw they always used to hold the case together, but a shorter length. This change coincided with my running out of product stock so i decided to do a redesign and that sparked the idea that was to become the 9Xtreme. Yep, it was born from screws.

Knowing that some people had one size screw and others had another, I planned from the beginning to accomodate both. Smart, right? I dug harder and finally found a supply of the correct screws. Yay! I carefully told them I wanted one size in silver and the other in black so that people could tell the difference. "OK" they say. Indeed. They even provided me with pictures, and sure enough the silver size looked bigger. At least it does to me... you can judge for yourself, but with a difference of only 0.3mm I didn't really second guess it. Afterall, I had been so clear!

Then recently I began shipping to customers. One complained that the screws were too big. I said, "try the other" to which the customer simply replied, "but they're the same". Of course, i assumed he was just daft because there's no possible way, was there? Sigh.

Sure enough. I got screwed again!

About Us

About us. Contact us. That's the way of the web, right? But let's be honest... it is me. When you are dealing with SmartieParts, you're dealing with me... Steven. And I will always do the very best I can to make sure we... I mean I... take care of you, the customer. I joke around a lot, but I really believe in good old fashioned customer service. So how can I help you today?